In the wake of last summer’s devastating Western wildfires, the Forest Service is trying to figure out how to restore the unhealthy, doghair, fire-prone forests created by a century of fire suppression and indiscriminate logging.
The latest bounce
The Bush administration has nominated Neal McCaleb to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, is a former Oklahoma secretary of Transportation. Trained as a civil engineer, he served as a state congressman for eight years, during which time he supported a state effort to tax Indian businesses on…
Shoring up wetlands protection
Wetlands protection received a boost on April 16, when the Bush administration announced it will stand by the “Tulloch Rule,” a last-minute Clinton regulation that had been delayed 60 days for review (HCN, 2/12/01). Now, the use of mechanized earth-moving equipment for excavation in wetlands must receive a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers,…
County unveils pioneering protection plan
ARIZONA After two years of biological studies, the Tucson, Ariz., area has the first draft of its pioneering plan to protect from development hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin desert, and 56 vulnerable species, including the endangered pygmy owl. The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan would also allow 400,000 newcomers to build on less environmentally…
Kayakers seek water rights
COLORADO The city of Golden is known as the home of both the Colorado School of Mines and Coors beer. But that image is changing. The city’s kayak course on Clear Creek has put Golden on the map of recreational boaters from around the country. There’s one small problem with the course: Golden has no…
Reform for dumpster-diving bears
COLORADO In Pitkin County, Colo., trash is now safe from prying paws. Last month, a “bear ordinance” went into effect in all the county’s rural areas. The law, which had been in the works for more than two years, says that every trash can that hits the curb in unincorporated Pitkin County must be “wildlife-proof.”…
Bias doesn’t belong in environmental education
Dear HCN, I read with great interest the cover article titled “Teach the children well” in the March 26 issue of High Country News. This subject is near and dear to me, as for many years I directed the water education program for the Utah Division of Water Resources. I was troubled, though, by what…
Biology and botany needed in schools
Dear HCN, Before the debate over corporate vs. conservation-sponsored environmental education is presented in “Teach the children well” (HCN, 3/26/01: Teach the children well), a more fundamental problem should be addressed. Environmental education is science-based (regardless of who designs the curriculum), and the driving discipline is biology. Herein lies the problem: a strong biological curriculum…
Water from agriculture to flush what?
Dear HCN, A quotation on page 8 of the March 12 issue of HCN is a beautiful example of a doctrine of priorities that needs to be re-examined. An officer of the El Paso Water Utilities is quoted as saying that “Agriculture (which uses water from the Rio Grande) brings in only $60 million a…
Tribes scale salmon harvest
NORTHWEST Although treaties guarantee the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes the right to harvest salmon, contentious negotiations over just how many fish will come out of the river often end up in front of a judge (HCN, 12/20/99: Tribes cast for tradition, catch controversy). That’s about to change. In February, tribes and…
Don’t buy SITLA’s promises
Dear HCN, Moab residents have good reason to be concerned about development of lands managed by Utah’s State Institutional and Trust Lands Administration (SITLA). “Luxury looms over Moab” (HCN, 3/26/01: Luxury looms over Moab). According to SITLA’s Ric McBrier, “this will be a quality project.” Before buying that promise, Moab residents should view the eyesore…
Can Mr. Nice Guy lead the Forest Service?
Agency lifer Dale Bosworth lands in the hot seat
Heard around the West
Somewhat of a ham when it comes to boosting Idaho’s agriculture or timber industry, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has obligingly posed for photos standing next to a large person peering out from a bulging potato costume. But his Web site, www.senate.gov/~craig/frontpage.htm, recently featured the beaming Republican senator showing off his perky six-month-old West Highland terrier.…
The year it rained money
In early September last year, I threw my lower back out. I drove to my job in Salmon, Idaho, but by noon I could hardly stand. I scooted myself to the office lobby on a wheeled chair, then hobbled as far as the sidewalk before my legs buckled. I lay panting on the cool concrete,…
Drought drains the West
Dry skies spell trouble for farmers, fish and forests
Debate rages over fish poisoning
Supporters say pesticide is the best tool for recovering native species
Fruita draws the line against sprawl
Rural town takes a page from ritzy mountain enclaves
The West’s fire survivors
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. LODGEPOLE PINE If you watched the Yellowstone fires in 1988, you’ve seen lodgepole pine in action. This is a tree that is built to burn. It grows in dense thickets at high elevations where the climate is usually moist and cool. But when drought…
Making forests safe again won’t be a walk in the park
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Mark Shiery works quickly but methodically with a chainsaw in the ponderosa pine forest on the northwest edge of Flagstaff. He revs his saw to fell small trees and bucks them into two-foot sections. Then Shiery, the assistant fuels manager for…
A modest chief moved the Forest Service miles down the road
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In March, Mike Dombeck resigned as chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Dombeck grew up on Wisconsin’s Chequamegon National Forest and spent years working for the Bureau of Land Management before leading the Forest Service for four years under President Clinton. While the Forest…
Back into the woods
The West goes to work cleaning up its forests
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A community of readers We like to say that High Country News is driven as much by its readers as it is by the ever-changing news. Our letters to the editor are often more entertaining and informative than anything else in the paper. And many a time we have answered the office phone and listened…